Insight: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 4) Read online

  Taking a moment to chomp on some meat to try to get her energy level back up, she compressed the pollen into a smaller and smaller bubble until it was packed tightly, looking like a giant orb of shimmering dust in the air. Pulling metal from her ring, she quickly shaped a container before pushing the dangerous motes into it and sealing it completely before shoving that into her ring.

  Another hunk of metal became a giant keg as she called the tainted blood to her. She wasn’t going to leave it there for either the monsters to somehow use or the humans to harm. Her little ones had spread out once more, patrolling the skies with their followers and searching for danger. She occasionally heard the guards dealing with a straggler making its way over to her, but they seemed to have it well in hand, so she focused on the mess in front of her. The sooner she got rid of the contamination, the sooner she could get help.

  Everything ached, but her legs and arm were throbbing as the blood threatened to come bursting back out from her slipshod hack healing job. When the last of the blood that wasn’t still in a body was collected, she closed the keg and it disappeared as she called out weakly, “You can come now.” Uncaring of her image, she chose the arm of a dead tialon and sat down, relieving the pressure on her magic as she elevated her legs. Her eyes closed as her magic went inward, searching for any infection or dirt inside her wounds before she closed them more superficially. She couldn’t fully heal herself, but she did at least make it better. Her stopgap earlier had barely been holding on.

  She had to start eating immediately after she did so, however. The energy drain was more than double normal, since not only was she doing the healing, but she was the healed, and that energy had to come from somewhere too.

  “Lady Jade?” a hesitant voice called out for her, and she wearily opened her eyes to see one of the guard squads reaching the square.

  “Over here.” Her voice was tired and a little bit scratchy; a result of her screaming earlier. As they got closer, weaving their way through the bodies, she realized that their uniform was slightly different than she was used to seeing, and that this was most likely a local guard unit.

  The first to arrive looked at her with curiosity, then concern as he realized her arm and legs were still covered in dry blood clots, her boots torn to shreds, her clothes and skin burned in patches. “Are you all right?”

  Shaking her head wearily, she responded, “Not really. You don’t happen to have a healer, do you?”

  “Let me through.” The guards parted as a younger man pushed forward, his tight leather armor showing off a fit body. She felt a little woozy and realized she was fixating on random things as he laid his hand on her arm and she felt the warm surge of healing magic flow through her, fixing the deep gashes that still lay just under the surface. She groaned softly as muscles screamed while being knit back together and cracked, burned skin became dust as fresh, pink skin replaced it once more.

  “By the heavens, how were you still moving with these injuries?” There was awe in the man’s voice as he worked, while a few others stood guard and the rest started to check the bodies, dealing mercy deaths to those still hanging on by a thread and making sure there weren’t any threats left.

  She chuckled dryly. “Willpower and a very strong constitution. What can you tell me about the condition of the rest of the city? How did you guys come here?”

  He answered absently, still focusing on her healing while she was trying to distract herself from the pain. “The city’s situation is surprisingly improved, given that most of the monsters broke off to head your way after your call. The distraction alone allowed us to finish our fight. I think there’s probably just a few pockets of them left, and they’re being taken care of slowly. Your fight is over; you need to rest now so you can fully heal. The strain you put your body through needs time.” His voice was stern as he admonished her.

  “Yes sir, captain tight pants.” Her slightly sarcastic quip came out before she could stop to think about it. He just raised a brow and continued to work on her, obviously realizing she was probably under a lot of stress and having no idea she was quoting anything. She missed movies in that moment. While she’d take the tradeoff between entertainment and a healthy body any day, she still couldn’t help but miss the feeling of connecting to people through fandoms.

  “Mommy, Mommy, come now!” She groaned as images flashed through her mind from Andy.

  “What’s wrong?” The healer’s voice cut through her images as he panicked a little, trying to see if he’d done something out of place.

  She sighed, reassuring him, “Nothing you did. I just need to go take care of something.”

  “No, you need to rest,” he boldly contradicted her, the healer in him obviously miffed that she still wanted to go out and fight after the injuries she’d taken.

  “Please just hurry, doc. There are some things more important than rest.” Her voice was tired, but firm.

  “Like what?” He wasn’t giving in an inch, even though he did seem to be working faster.

  Looking up at the night sky and the stars twinkling innocently above, she sighed. “Baby dragons.”

  Chapter Four - Dragons

  “Doc, you’re supposed to be working faster, not stopping altogether.” Jade’s tired voice brought the poor healer out of his shocked stupor after her statement. Apparently, processing the thought of baby dragons was mind blowing and caused him to go into temporary stupefaction. He belatedly sent his magic back through her, working to get the last of her injuries taken care of. She’d taken more shots than she cared to admit to anyone she didn’t have to.

  Had her idea been completely stupid? Absolutely. Was it effective? Very. Would she do it again? In a heartbeat. If being stupid meant that even one more person was saved, she’d take it. As long as she wasn’t dead, everything else was negotiable. Even Frank’s lack of magic was something she’d figure out how to deal with. In this world, as long as someone was alive, anything was possible.

  That said, getting hurt and healed wasn’t pleasant. “D-did y-you s-say d-drag-gons?” Once he was back in the present, he tried to question her, though his nervousness showed through clearly in his stutter.

  Sighing as she stared at the night sky, she nodded again. “Baby dragons. Three of them.” From the images in her mind’s eye, they were actually pretty adorable, and they weren’t harming anyone, just… playing in a fountain. However, the very fact that they were there could spell major trouble if the dragons were as territorial as she’d been told. No mama bear, or in this case, mama dragon, liked their babies being messed with.

  “Y-you’re good t-to go.” The mention that the dragons were babies seemed to give him the boost to finish up quickly, wanting her to leave as soon as possible. As soon as she was given the all clear, she stood up, taking mental inventory of her body. She still felt drained and her muscles were a little achy, plus there was that itch from siphoning the fae. The fae that were still trapped in her ring, possibly suffocating to death. She wasn’t getting red notifications from them as of yet, but she took a few seconds to channel fresh air into the ring just in case.

  She put a hand on the healer, using a tiny bit of life magic to give him a personal boost of serenity and strength, then bid him farewell. “Thanks, doc. I appreciate you healing me when there are a lot of others who probably need help. I won’t keep you further. Be safe.” The man, no, it wasn’t just him, this entire city was filled with people who were probably traumatized by the events of tonight. Sure, it was their world, this was what they grew up potentially expecting, but this wasn’t an everyday thing. It was a nightmare come to life.

  How many were dead? How many were missing, taken by the mesmer or even something like the fae who she’d overheard talking about kidnapping people for who knew what? How many would be scared to stay here? How had they even gotten in? From what she’d pieced together, she didn’t see a wall breach, they were just… in the city.

  Questions without answers flooded her brain as she waved to the guards and jumped softly to the roof, grateful she could control her gravity to make it easier. She needed to cut across quite a few streets to get to where her little ones were projecting the images of baby dragons.

  She paused partway there, realizing she could see something other than darkness glinting in the streets. As she looked closer, she felt sick. There were a few bodies in a pile, thrown aside like trash. Above them glittered a pale green mist that coalesced into silhouettes the longer she stared. A new question came to her mind: how would they clean up the bodies? How would they give them all proper burials? It wasn’t like they could just build a huge pyre. A tree for every body tonight would lead to an entirely new forest…

  “I’m sorry…” Her whisper faded into the night air as she turned, moving on from the sight. It wasn’t just everyone else. She had the distinct feeling that she’d be having nightmares about tonight for a long time to come. She began to run, pulling meat from her ring to munch on as she did so. Her mind’s eye caught on the containers of beann soup she’d gotten earlier, and she decided that when she had a moment to sit down again, she’d take the time to appreciate it, since she’d been sucking it down like a madwoman earlier.

  Thinking of more mundane things like food distracted her from the carnage around her, and she knew she was using it as a coping mechanism to deal with the fact that this was her fault. Her arrival in the world had disrupted the tenuous balance. It may not have been a great situation before she arrived, what with dealing with mesmer attacks once a month or so, but it hadn’t been the wholescale slaughter she saw before her. Her presence had thrown the common people out of the frying pan and into the fire.

  She couldn’t help but cough out a dry laugh that was half a sob. A hero was someone who got everyone else killed.
Truer words could not be spoken in that moment. Would the good she tried to do be outweighed by the bad she brought to the world around her simply by existing? This wasn’t a video game, and these people weren’t NPCs. They were living, breathing people with their own dreams and aspirations. They weren’t going to respawn. They were gone, forever.

  Powerless. She felt inadequate. She couldn’t bring them back to life, and she couldn’t go back in time to save them. So what could she do? She could help make sure they got proper burials, make sure those that survived were safe, and avenge them. The creatures sent tonight were nothing but sacrificial pawns. Looking up at the stars, she vowed, “I will find you, and I will end you.” Tonight, they had become her nightmare. But she had the skills, and this would not be the end of it. If she had to hunt them to the end of the earth, so be it.

  “Good.” The feminine voice echoed in her head along with the faint sound of applause.

  Searching the vicinity frantically, Jade called harshly, “Who’s there!?” Silence greeted her. Her senses were on high alert, scanning for anything, but there was… nothing. She slowly stopped looking, trying to calm her nerves. She instinctively knew that whoever just communicated with her was on an entirely different level. It did tell her one thing: she was being watched. Whether that was by whatever being brought her here or by some greater power, she didn’t know. If she found out it was like one of those anime where the gods were using her as entertainment, she would find a way to have her revenge on them too.

  Still, there wasn’t much she could do about it at the moment. No matter how strong she was, she felt weak in comparison to the echoing voice.

  Without realizing it, she’d reached another square. Looking down on the open space with overturned carts, her eyes focused on the fountain in the center where three puppy-sized creatures were playing in the jets of water.

  Though they seemed oblivious to the world around them in their fun, their eyes immediately proved otherwise when they turned towards her as soon as she jumped down from the roof. Inquisitive chirps reached her ears as she slowly walked towards them. Her mind was going over everything she’d heard and read about dragons in this world. However, of anything she’d heard, all of it was about adults. Probably because they were so protective of their children that no humans ever saw them.

  She kept her voice calm and soothing as she called out gently, “Hello sweethearts, how did you get so far from home?” Unlike with the monsters, she sensed no malice from the whelplings, nor danger, for the moment. The three had landed on the fountain’s edge, flapping their wings and sending water droplets everywhere. Jade couldn’t help but laugh as the water flew through the air, sparkling.

  Whether the fountain water had literally held sparkles before or if the dragons had caused it, she had no idea, but it was definitely shinier than normal as it glistened in the new moonlight. The dark, ominous clouds overhead had finally started to disperse, meaning that they had been a planned part of the whole affair.

  Step by step, she reached the side of the fountain where the three were twining around each other as they watched her. The red one hissed slightly as it got tripped up by its blue counterpart, almost falling off the fountain ledge as she sat down. Her hand automatically reached out, stabilizing the little thing as she cooed, “Oh, you’re all so pretty. Be good now, we need to try and find your parents before we add rampaging mama dragons to the list of troubles.”

  The scales beneath her hand were still soft, rather than the hard edges she’d been expecting. Probably because they were still growing. However, touching one seemed to have broken the floodgates of their curiosity. They scrambled over each other and then onto her, climbing and inspecting her as they poked cold little noses against everything, whuffling through her ruined clothes.

  “Oh, that tickles!” She couldn’t help the giggle that she let out as they explored her, her hands gently reaching over to drag their noses away from any private places they tried to sniff. Their chirping was soothing to her as she let her fingers drift over their bodies, marveling at their beauty. She could feel their sharp little claws poking even more holes in her clothes and lightly scratching her skin, and had a moment to be grateful that she was tougher than the average human or those talons would be ripping her to ribbons.

  Ramoth and Lilith chose that moment to come closer, and she saw how their heads immediately perked up, following her babies’ flights as they got closer. The little ruby one lowered its body, and she knew it was preparing to pounce. “No.” Jade’s voice was layered with the tiniest bit of command, causing all three of their heads to swivel back to her. “My fellacai are friends, not food.” She sighed, wondering how much of what she’d been saying they even partially understood.

  Still, she had to keep trying. “Friends, not food. If you’re hungry, I can give you something else to eat.” Ramoth and Lilith had landed on her hair by that point, solidifying their attention on her. The beautiful blue had a tiny forked tongue slip out, tasting the air and giving her a better look at a mouthful of very sharp little teeth.

  With the three having ended up in her lap for the most part, she flicked her fingers, first bringing out a few apples she had stored. Little red was the first one who darted forward, snapping it out of her hands and happily munching on it. The little blue and green were slower, but still also took them from her hands, albeit almost falling off again in the struggle. There just wasn’t enough room on her lap for them.

  Glancing around at the debris, she tried to locate something that would help her move them before Lilith’s voice sounded in her head, “Mommy, make a tree.” An image of a nest perched high in a tree accompanied the suggestion, and she smiled.

  “Thank you, Lilith. That’s a wonderful idea.” She held her hand to the side, and three little heads swiveled to watch as stone and dirt appeared. She first shaped a new little pot, then concentrated on the seed she stuck inside, pulling some of the shiny water from the fountain to nurture it as well.

  The tree grew straight for about two feet before it began to twist. Why go to all the effort of making a nest inside of a tree when you could just make the tree a nest? The branches wove together, creating a bowl in the center large enough for the three dragons to rest while the leaves and flowers budded around the outside, draping down in a beautiful purple curtain. She’d always loved wisteria.

  While the dragons were munching on their apples, they were poking their noses towards the tree, obviously curious about this new tree that sprung into existence beside them. Smiling, she picked the red one up to a self-righteous squawk and deposited it gently in the nest, at which point it stopped struggling and began to explore. The little green one needed no prompting from her, flapping its wings slightly as it made the graceful hop to the tree itself, looking around.

  The blue one was still looking curiously, but also happily sitting on her lap. She stroked it for a moment, letting her fingers run along its spine ridges before she picked it up, giving it a gentle kiss on the head before she placed it softly in the tree with its siblings. “How on earth am I supposed to find your parents?”

  Her soft mutters were ignored as she looked down at the three little dragons who now appeared like chicks in a nest, craning their necks to beg for food as they chirped at her. Smiling, she withdrew more apples, some jerky, and a pot of the stew she’d been given, placing it in the middle of the nest for them to share.

  Three heads immediately stuck into the pot, obviously drawn by the rich fragrance of the stew as she took out a smaller pot and poured some into a large metal cup so she could drink it herself. She no longer blamed the dragons for their appetite, as Lupa had outdone herself with the stew. It was absolutely delicious, now that she had the time to savor it!

  She heard a little burp and giggled as she looked at the dragons, the little green one curling up, obviously done eating. The rest of her fellacai had gathered, and they slowly took their own places in the tree, their little chirps almost as if in response to the dragons, who looked at them curiously but didn’t snap, obviously happy with the alternative food they’d been given.